"So in summary... Google has pulled the plug on support on a protocol they've helped popularize, after years of promising interoperability, for reasons that are dubious at best, and in a way that leaves people who don't jump to the new Hangouts app unable to talk to their contacts without any feedback that their IMs aren't getting through... And they've done that with no warning to anyone. I imagine there's a bunch of people out there wondering where some of their buddies have gone, or why their messages aren't getting responses, because this isn't documented anywhere." Google really messed this up. Such a dick move.

This wouldn't have been a problem if people just stuck to using Jabber or another open protocol. The key is to stick to your principles and not to what's "cool" and what everyone else is using. So instead of Skype or whatever else is closed, you should all get your family and friends to use Ekiga or PSI (whatever Jabber client)or whatever else you desire that's free and open source.

You can't get Average Jane and Joe to use something just because that something is free as in libre or decentralized, they do not understand and/or care and that's that. It doesn't help at all that all the F/OSS alternatives for Skype/Messenger/whatever generally suck arse.